Are we back to this? Super-skinny celebs like Alexa are supposed to be back in vogue (Picture: Alexa Chung, Instagram)

So, back in the mid-noughties, size zero and then size double zero (which would be the equivalent of a size two in the UK) were bandied around as the latest must-have body shape/fashion horror story, depending on your point of view.

There was Victoria Beckham with her skinny legs and thigh gap at the 2006 World Cup and stars like Nicole Ritchie looking scarily skinny on the beach.

But, thankfully, we moved on from that. Didn’t we?!

Well, we thought we had.

According to Grazia, Hollywood’s A-list are once again becoming obsessed with being super-skinny. And it has inspired a shocking new phenomenon: the size triple zero, which is EIGHT times smaller than a UK 16, our average national dress size.

The new size triple zero is ridiculously far from the UK average (Picture: Beretta/Sims/REX)

Yes, American shoppers are now able to buy size triple zero clothes, with very small 23-inch waists, the same size waistband in fact as 6-8 year-old girls would typically wear.

An LA source reportedly told Grazia: ‘Right now it is in to be thin in Hollywood. It’s no secret that stars can make headlines out of being scarily skinny. It’s not about size zero anymore.

A-list trainer James Duigan explains: ‘The selfie craze in particular has intensified this, and celebrities know that if they post a picture of themselves looking skinny, with ribs on show, they’ll get attention.

‘But it isn’t always real – sometimes they’re breathing in and sometimes the angle makes them look thinner than they really are.’

Adding to confusion is so-called ‘vanity sizing’ with shops inflating the supposedly standard sizes over time to help boost shoppers’ self-esteem. This means a size 10 can vary wildly between different high street retailers, sometimes by up to two inches or more on the hip.

On top of that, there’s a lack of standardisation across Europe generally.

As Grazia’s editor-in-chief Jane Bruton explains: ‘A 38 is a British size 10 in France but a size six in Italy’.

The result is complete chaos and the introduction of these new, sub-zero sizes for the naturally very slim shoppers, which others then unrealistically aspire to.

We’ve got an idea though. How about we get real, realise that it’s not actually desirable for all women to have the same super-slim body shape and quash this new ‘trend’ before it even reaches us? Just a suggestion.